Menuet in G Major (BWV Anh. 114) Analysis

The composition of this piece has historically been attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach, due to the fact that it was included into the Ana Magdalena Notebook (Bach's second wife).

This is the reason why we can see  BWV Anh. 114.  in its title.

This book is a compilation of musical works from many composers of the late 17th and early 18th century.

Only a few have been identified, among them: François Couperin, Georg Bohm y el propio J.S. Bach, which is why many pieces have remained anonymous.

Such was the case of this menuet, with its companion piece, the  Menuet in g minor ( BWV Anh. 115), until 1970, date on which it was finally attributed to Petzold. 

BWV is the acronym that represents "Bach Werke Verzeichnis" (Bach's works catalogue).

Anh. refers to the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach.

Note: There are actually two manuscript notebooks that J.S. Bach presented to Ana Magdalena, but when we talk about the "Ana Magdalena Notebook" we refer to the second one. I will explain the reason of this in a future post, diving deeper into this topic.

Below is a sheet music video of this piece:

At the same time, each section can be divided into four parts of 8 measures.

Each one of these subsections is formed by two phrases.

First an antecedent phrase, followed by a consequent phrase (more popularly known as "question and answer").

As we can see, response 1 doesn't have the same caracter than response 2

The same happens with response 3  and response 4.

This is related to harmony.

Now, let's take a look at the harmonic development.

Harmonic Analysis

As we can apreciate, the first part ends with a  half cadence (m. 8).

And as we have previously seen, the second part is practically identical to the second one, with just a couple of slight changes in the last two measures (15 & 16) to resolve with a  perfect authentic cadence in the last bar of this first section.

Below, the second section:

The first part of this second section is in the region of V. 

Considering this, :

• The first phrase (m. 20) ends with  half cadence.

• The cadence which the first parte ends with is a  perfect authentic cadence  because now we consider V as I. 

But inmediately we return to the original tonality (g major) at the second part.

In m. 25, G (I) is IV of the previous (D Major).

Lastly, the final cadence that closes the second part of this second section, and with it the entere piece, is a  perfect authentic cadence  in G Major.

MOTIVIC ANALYSIS

The main motive of this piece is:

El second part  is formed by three quarters, the first of them is at a distance of fifth.

In mm. 3-4 the motive is used highly (pitch) in C Major (IV) in what is the first answer.

In m. 5 we find an inversion of the main motive.

This is known as motivic inversion, one of the many  motivic transformation  techniques.

This is, though not exclusively, very typical of the baroque, that's why we can find it in many works of that period.

                                                     

As we can see here: the interval formed between the first and the second note is descending.

Also, the direction of the four eights changes, being now ascending.

In m.7 we find another variation upon the main motive.

This variation will be used by the composer as the main of the second section. 

In m.7 we find another variation upon the main motive.

This variation is used as the main motive of the second section. 

So we have:

As I previously mentioned, the main motive of the second part is that we have seen in the first part (m.7) with the only change being its first interval now descending (si 5 - sol 5).

And finally, we find a new motive at bar 20 that turns out to be very constrasting; this is due to the fact that, clearly, it's not based upon the main motive, has it happens with the variations that we found before.

We'll find it again at the begining of the second part of this second section :

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